The Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia is the oldest American museum of its kind, established in 1812. It has a collection of 17 million objects, including a great Dinosaur Hall and a children’s museum. Animal dioramas and fossils are also on display.
The Academy of Natural Sciences is a natural history museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Established in 1812 to promote science and “useful learning,” it is the oldest American museum of its kind. In his childhood he organized wilderness expeditions and explorers brought back new species of flora and fauna for study and examination. These expeditions formed the beginning of the Academy of Natural Sciences’ collection of 17 million objects.
Permanent exhibits include a steam-covered tropical garden where butterflies fly freely around the room and can even land on visitors, and the great Dinosaur Hall. An icon of the Academy of Natural Sciences looms over guests in the Hall of Dinosaurs, the 42m long skeleton of a tyrannosaurus rex. There are also another 12.80 dinosaurs in the room, half of which are skeletons. The academy has an online exhibit of fossils that were once owned by Thomas Jefferson, including a mastodon fossil.
Children visiting the museum enjoy The Big Dig, where they can act as paleontologists to excavate a life-size Stegosaurus model. Visitors can also see dinosaur footprints and eggs. In the Fossil Prep Lab, they can see paleontologists and other museum staff working on real fossils that have been unearthed in other locations around the world.
Youngsters can also visit the Academy of Natural Sciences children’s museum, Outside In. As the name suggests, the children’s room brings the outdoors inside for children to see up close. They can hear a real meteorite, see bees buzzing at work around their hive, or look for shark teeth, among other activities. Animals are a big attraction at Outside In, including a rabbit, a legless lizard, hissing beetles, a cowbird, and a turtle.
Animal dioramas in natural settings are an important part of the visitor experience at the Academy of Natural Sciences. Among the 37 dioramas are those showing elk, bear, bison, mountain sheep and musk oxen, while others feature tigers, lions, zebras, gorillas and antelopes. Asian dioramas feature a panda and a yak.
The museum first allowed public access in 1828, offering views of some of the collected items. All of them have been identified with labels written in Greek and Latin. Approximately 60 years after the museum’s founding, and after three moves due to rapidly expanding holdings, the Academy of Natural Sciences moved to its current location on Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
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